Trump fires first salvo on drug prices

President Trump is beginning to move on high drug prices, unveiling a series of modest proposals in his budget request released Monday.

It’s the first time Trump has issued major proposals to lower drug prices since coming to the White House, despite criticizing pharmaceutical companies last year and accusing them of “getting away with murder.”

Advocates for lowering drug costs greeted the proposals on Monday as a step in the right direction, but said they are not nearly enough.

David Mitchell, founder of the advocacy group Patients for Affordable Drugs, said the proposals are “tinkering around the edges” of the issue but do not get at the “root cause, which is the drug companies charge too much money.”